


let me be your one and only

by theicequeenwrites



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: "please don't marry that person lol", Angst, Arranged Marriage, Break Up, Crack Relationships, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, Friends With Benefits, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, No Lesbians Die, Original Character(s), Toph Beifong-centric, how weird would it be if your gf could tell every time you lied, is it really a break up if ur never really together tho, no beta we die like men, politically advantageous marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:13:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28255206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theicequeenwrites/pseuds/theicequeenwrites
Summary: Toph isn't sure when it happened or why. It shouldn't have, that's the truth, she doesn't need to detect any heart rates to know that. And yet, as it reaches its definitive end, Toph can't help but feeling crushed. Ty Lee always says that love finds you when you aren't looking...maybe she has a point.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula/OC, Azula/Toph Beifong, Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	let me be your one and only

"So," Toph drawls, pressing her back into the door jamb. The wood is cold through the silk of her cheongsam that was sent to her for the wedding from Katara. She assumes its red and gold, as she's representing Azula in her upcoming union. She can tell the silk is expensive though, that no expense was spared, it reminds her of the hanfus she used to wear at her parents' house. "I hear a 'bon voyage' in in order."

Toph feels Azula turn to look at her, feels her face bunch into a frown. Toph keeps her own face pointedly blank, it helps though that her eyes are still covered by thick bangs.

"Hello to you too," Azula snaps. Toph purses her lips. She knows if she waits long enough, Azula will crack and start a conversation. A quirk: Azula hates silence. There's a heavy sigh. "What are you doing here?"

Toph chuckles humorlessly. "What _am_ I doing here?" she bites out. The words feel too bitter in her mouth, she's going about this all wrong. "I'm here for your wedding."

Azula scowls. Toph scowls right back. "Excellent," Azula says sharply, "A paper RSVP would have worked well enough though." 

Toph sends a diamond flying out of the encrusted headpiece settled around her topknot. Azula screeches. "Put that back. Put that back!"

"Not until you talk to me and stop avoiding the issue." 

Azula huffs, again. "And what would that be?" 

"That you're getting married." 

Azula scoffs, harshly, loudly. "I feel like there's more to that sentence." 

"Fill in the blanks." 

"Are you mad that I'm not marrying you? Are you mad that I have to do this? Are you mad I looked a potential political crisis in the face and didn't drop onto one knee with my mother's ring?" She's breathing heavily now.

Toph shouldn't be thinking of other scenarios where she's made Azula breathe like that, but she does. She can't help it. She doesn't know what Azula looks like. She's heard that she has black hair and gold eyes and is toned and strong. Toph tries to picture her, probably made up already with her face painted and sitting in her red haori and Fire Princess skirts. Sokka has tried to describe Azula time and time again to her, she wears _red,_ has sharp cheek bones, blahblahblah. All Toph knows about Azula is how her hair smells, how she tastes, how it feels to have her nails scratching down her back.

That's all that's important. Because it's only physical, one hundred percent non-romantic. No matter how their hook-ups slowly faded to music and take out nights and other activities that could be qualified as date activities. But it doesn't matter, because they agreed: no catching feelings.

Toph ignores the questions. "What happened to 'this is Azula's world, we're all just living in it', huh? What happened to we get what we want, we follow no rules?"

Azula's nose scrunches more than Toph thought was possible. She bares her teeth at herself in the mirror. Toph crosses her arms over her chest and tries to pretend she's unbothered by this whole shebang. 

But she remembers the heart sinking despair she felt when Azula walked up to her and announced, 'I'm getting married,' and her heart didn't race like a punch line Toph was early to pick up on. She remembers feeling vaguely cheated by the realization that it only ever was physical, that she wasn't going to get her whirlwind romance like Twinkletoes and Katara, or Sokka and Suki. 

"Do you think I want to do this?" Azula asks maniacally. Toph can tell she's pacing now. She desperately wants to know what she looks like, how she looks when she's panicked (and fresh out of the shower and just waking up). 

"If you didn't want to you wouldn't be doing this." 

"This isn't about me," Azula shouts. She laughs short and sharp. "This is about the Fire Nation, about my duty and honor." 

"No one is forcing you to do this," Toph points out. "There's plenty of nobles who can marry the Earth nephew and secure the alliance, plenty of other non-marriage routes to save the alliance." 

"I have to do this." Her heartrate doesn't spike, she believes she has to do this. 

"No you don't." 

Another dejected sigh. "What do you suggest I do Toph? Run to Zuko and beg him to fix this? He has enough on his plate."

Toph loves Zuko as a brother, but she's selfish. She's saved the world, gave her childhood to a war she had no hand in creating. She's an adult now, and she's utterly selfish. "Run away," she says breathlessly. She's toyed with the idea since Azula announced she would be getting married, thought of what it would be like to spend the rest of her days content and satisfied in a small cottage in the colonies. "Run away with me." 

Azula's heartbeat skips a beat, then picks up, slamming against her breastbone. "I can't."

"You _can._ "

"No, I can't Toph. I can't. I have to do this."

"Why? What's keeping you here?"

"What's keeping _you_ here? You could be gone right now, saving yourself from this torment." 

"So you admit that this is torment? Is this killing you as much as it's killing me?" 

It was never supposed to be more than physical. They agreed, no feelings. But their first one night stand and their hook ups lead to experimenting in the kitchen and walks on the beach and singing together under the stars. Their strict physical arrangement betrayed them, because they both got caught in the trap. The feelings trap. _Friends with benefits never works,_ Sokka had told her when she spilled the beans to him. He felt sad, for some reason, Toph could tell. A lingering feeling he couldn't shake off. _Love comes when you aren't expecting it,_ Ty Lee had said. She had brushed them off then. But this is now. And she was wrong. 

She remembers the ease of denying the feelings building up. How easily she could pretend that's just how friends felt. But one night they were in bed, clothes off, more intimate than just friends get, Azula's hands caught in Toph's hair when Azula groaned out, 'I love you.' She said it again and again, worshipped Toph's body between whispers of the words. Toph said it too, because she did, she loved -loves- Azula, and couldn't not say it back. 

"This is killing me, Toph. Is that what you want to hear? Are you happy now?" 

"No." 

"Agni dammit!" Azula shouts. She slams a fist against the vanity, Toph feels the vibrations through her entire body. "Stop, stop making this harder than it needs to be. I have to do this." She sucks in a deep breath, lets it go. "I love you," her voice falls off. Toph can tell she's near tears. "I love you but that doesn't mean I can just abandon my country when they need me." Not a lie. 

Toph gets it. She understands the need to do what's right. She spent years doing it, combatting against Azula's very own evils. Azula's going through her hero stage and perhaps Toph can't be mad about it, but she wants, wants so badly, and that's getting in her way. 

She looks in the direction she assumes Azula is. She feels Azula's intense gaze on her. She loves her, she loves her. They don't get happy endings though. They've been through hell and back, held the weight of the world on their shoulders, suffered a million loses but the spirits weren't content with that. They'll throw you your perfect match: adventurous enough to match you, same taste in music and food, everything you need and want in one. Then yank it away. Because they're cruel, because life isn't fair, because they are just two blips in a short sequence of time. 

Toph does not say 'I love you' back, because it's useless. She lifts her chin, because she is Toph Beifong and she is strong. "I hope life treats you well," she says, because this is not an argument she will win.

Toph is going to walk away without an answer, Azula is going to marry the Earth King's nephew, and they will never speak to each other directly again. 

Azula will marry her noble and have two daughters, who will go onto have kids. Azula's grand children will be irrelevant to the lines of succession of both the Earth and Fire kingdoms, too far removed from the main families. They will be firebenders, live as the wealthy in the Fire Nation. 

Azula will never speak to Toph again, but not a day will pass that she does not think of her. 

\---

Asami is the granddaughter of the Fire Princess, she knows this, but not many others do. She loves her girlfriend, fights evil and reads about Avatar Aang and his Gang who fought the tyranny of the Fire Nation. 

One day she will find a box of letters addressed to 'T'. The letters are unsent, no address, no stamp, just 'T' on the front and 'Azula' on the back. They lament of a love lost, a mourned what-if, a life that could have been. Asami reads every letter once, then twice. Tries to picture her grandmother in love with this vivacious girl who rocked her world. Asami imagines having to give up Korra for her nation, she's not sure she could. She burns the letters one by one, erasing all traces of the whirlwind, epic love of Azula and T, because she knows her grandmother, knows she would rather nobody find them, even if the world would relish in the tale of honor and passion and sacrifice. 

Even if the world realizes all could have been okay if there had been no sacrifice, no torture to their love. 

**Author's Note:**

> i...don't even know where this came from. if you read this i appreciate u. this was taken so not-seriously that i didn't even save it in a doc, straight up written in the post section of ao3


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